184 Miscellanies. 



acid gas itself.* We are glad to observe that genuine sulphureous 

 waters have been discovered in this region of Saratoga and Ballston. 

 The indications of sulpureous waters stated by Dr. Steel are unequiv- 

 ocal, and very different from those which are often ignorantly assu- 

 med to establish the same point. A fetid impregnation, arising from 

 decomposing organic matter, may produce an offensive water, but 

 will not give a true impregnation of sulphuretted hydrogen. We 

 have tried some of these, so called j sulphureous waters, and while 

 they were somewhat fetid, they produced no tarnish in the most deli- 

 cate metallic solutions, such as those of bismuth, silver and lead. We 

 can with pleasure recommed Dr. Steel's little volume, as a valuable 

 acquisition to this department of local knowledge. There can be no 

 doubt it must speedily pass to another edidon, and although we have 

 a great distaste for petty cridcism, were we at the Doctor's elbow, 

 when he blots a copy of this edition that it may appear improved in 

 another, we should venture to suggest a few hints, especially in the 

 literary department of the work. 



11. Essays on some of the most important articles of the Materia 

 Medica, — with an account of the neiv proximate principles, &fc. &fc.; 

 by George W. Carpenter. — Mr. Carpenter has been, for some years, 

 well known as an active, ingenious, and successful pharmaceutist; and 

 the pubhc have been not a little indebted to him for his zeal and tact 

 in bringing forward discoveries and improvements, (not unfrequently 

 his own) in the materia medica. Many of his valuable papers have 

 appeared in this journal ; and in its pages, and in those of the medical 

 journals of Philadelphia, some prominent parts of the present work 

 may be found. There is however an important advantage in bringing 

 these papers, (embodied also with the important additions whicb in 

 relation to other subjects, have been made, in the present volume,) into 

 a portable, compact and cheap form, that they may be easily acces- 

 sible to the practitioner. We can say, with the editor of the 

 National Gazette, " that we closed this volume with the impression 

 that it must be serviceable in every family, and may fix and re- 

 ward the attention of any inquirer. _ The improvements which 

 have been made in the preparation and exhibition of many of 



* The explosion of a sulphureous water at Ballston, by which the peculiarity of 

 the water was destroyed and a sulphureous smell diffused to a considerable distance 

 around, would seem to imply that some of the gases of sulphur are occasionally con- 

 cerned in generating- the power. 



